Estonian unicorn Playtech, one of the leading online gaming software suppliers in the world, will be sold to Australian company Aristocrat Leisure for €3.2 billion.
Aristocrat Leisure, a leading global gaming content and technology company and top-tier mobile games publisher bought Playtech to break into the online gambling sector, which is currently estimated at 60 billion euros and is predicted to grow in line with broader consumer and technology trends, which have only accelerated through the pandemic.
Playtech was founded in Tartu, the second largest city of Estonia, in 1999. The mastermind behind the start of Playtech was Cypriot-Israeli entrepreneur Teddy Sagi that wanted to bring together the best minds from gaming, technology, and multimedia to create a company without a rival. Naturally he chose Estonia for the company’s location.
It only took two years for Sagi and his team to launch the company’s first casino – but this was just the beginning as several technology and media usage trends were taken advantage of on the way, innovating the way online gaming software is run through and through.
Just over two decades later, Playtech is on the FTSE 250 Index and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Playtech now owns over 300 gaming brands, has more than 150 global licensees and runs its offices in 19 countries around the world.
One of the key success factors for Playtech in recent years has been their ability to hire and retain top-class talent from Estonia and abroad. The employees just love Playtech – one big reason why there seems to be a bright future ahead for the gaming software supplier.
Estonia is a world leader in unicorns per capita. Despite a population of 1.3 million people, the country has been the birthplace of seven unicorns so far: Skype in 2005, Playtech in 2007, Wise in 2015, Bolt in 2018, Pipedrive in 2020, Zego and ID.me in 2021. That’s 5.3 unicorns per capita. And the time lag between the creation of each following unicorn is constantly decreasing.
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